Aug 23, 2013

Always The Teacher

Joanne Jackson has always been a teacher, even after she retired. According to The Morning Call, her resignation last night from the Allentown School Board caught everybody off guard. It didn't catch me off guard, but only because Joanne and I are friends on Facebook. From her posts there, I know that her name is no longer Jackson, because she recently married. Also from her posts, I know that she sold her home in Allentown, and that they are living in her husband's home. Because of moving out of the Allentown district, her resignation was inevitable, but, being always the teacher, Joanne chose to make a lesson out of it. From my knowledge, the reasons that she gave for her resignation were indeed long term frustrations that she had with some fellow board members.
My Facebook interaction is different than most. I limit my Friends to people I actually know, and have worked with on one project or another. I also happen to be friends with two fellow board members with whom she had issues, Scott Armstrong and David Zimmerman. Although I can understand the clash in style and tension Joanne felt with these two gentleman, I believe that Allentown was well served by all three of them. Joanne's resignation, for whatever reason, is indeed a loss to the school district.

18 comments:

Anonymous
said...

So Zimmermann and Armstrong drove her to get married and move out of the district? All because she was frustrated?

How terrible that Zimmermann's and Armstrong's mere PRESENCE forced her to listen to someone defending the taxpayers. I would venture to guess that despite the horror of having to listen to an opposing viewpoint, very few votes didn't go the way Jackson wanted.

She may well be a good person away from the board, but she always voted like a teachers union member on the board. That hasn't turned out well for taxpayers or students in the district.

And now, like so many liberals, she flees the utopia she helped create, never even CONSIDERING the fact that she might have even a drop of responsibility for it.

@8:42, you're making this a conservative/liberal issue. i do not believe that the school board, or even the administration*, is responsible for the difficulties associated with the allentown school district. allentown now is an urban, low income district, and has all the problems that come with that situation. having "pro teacher" school board member should be tolerated by the taxpayers, just as teachers should tolerate "pro taxpayer" members.

* i believe that all the changes that zahorchak instituted did not advance the system, and on the contrary, proved to be disruptive. however, poverty remains the primary problem. parents in a survival mode have less time to devote to their children's education.

I thought the KOZ denial by the ASD Board (Jackson did agree with Armstrong & Zimmerman on a 5-4 vote) was a very important news story overlooked by the Morning Call (on purpose?) but covered by the Express-Times. Pawlowski spent a good deal of time and energy lining up the Adelaide Mills project for the KOZ, securing all City land use approvals, and I'm very suprised ASD effectively killed the project. That's a pretty significant vote by ASD.

I was taken aback after the meting when the Call reporter approached me. I thought he would ask for my reaction to the KOZ vote, instead he wanted me to comment on comments that Joanne had made. Disappointing to say the least.

Scott@5:09, nobody seems real happy about the article. joanne doesn't like the characterization that she stormed out of the meeting. you're disappointed about the lack of coverage of the koz rejection.

rolf, i declined your comment, not because you call me an apologist, or a fence sitter, but because it expresses the same sentiment as comment 8:42 about jackson. joanne jackson first ran as a write in candidate in 2005, no easy feat. she has devoted years to the school board. she never hid her background as a teacher, or her devotion to teachers.

@5:30, if anything was low, it was me giving you the information which you just used against jackson. many people are in transition of residency requirements after moving. you're even allowed to vote in your old district after moving. i had conservations with joanne prior to recent changes in her private life, and her frustrations with fellow board members were widely known. those who follow the school district and board are not surprised by her resignation, for the reasons she stated. any future comments similar to 5:30 will not appear.

Mr. Molovinsky,Do not know anything about the above mentioned lady but the other board member who resigned the same night had nothing good to say about the public, according to news reports. Why did she allow herself to be treated so poorly for so long, one wonders.

Anonymous Anonymous said...In any event, how about a big "congratulations" to Armstrong, Zimmermann, Jackson and the two others voting against the Adelaide Mills KOZ.

That was a good move for the district and the ASD taxpayers.

August 24, 2013 at 1:18 AM

Agree. Maybe an attorney will answer, but I think it is illegal for any landlord to deny rent to a family with children so when this developer states these apts. will be for singles only, how can that be?

But what to do. If citizens are not allowed to carry guns into government buildings and there are not enough police officers to possibly cover all government meetings, what to do? Are we going to become a society that has video only government gatherings where officials are in one room, the public in another and a live feed is broadcast back and forth? Great Society that will be. Very sad indeed.

@7:54, to my knowledge, julie ambrose resigned only because she would not be available for meetings, because of her graduate school courses. the member in this post who resigned, joanne jackson, had long standing issues with some fellow board members, but not the public.

@7:56, the owner and administration said that the proposed apartments would attract childless professional couples, but they never said "adults only", which is illegal.

comments which are in error, such as above, but then require a reply to correct misinformation, may sometimes not be printed.

@7:59, your comment is off topic and will be the last on gun control issues. gun violence has occurred at just about any type of venue you can think of. i don't know anybody who attends public meetings, but has stopped for that reason. the same applies to movie theaters, schools and malls.

sadly, this seems to be a lack of civility and decorum when dealing differing opinions. It seems all too often in our society, be it Washington or more local, that people resort to childish, elementary school playground tactics, rather than having a discussion or debate on the issues and leaving it at that.

I believe the school board, in general, continues to support failed policies, many of which are residual leftovers from the failed superintendency of Zahorchak.

Many people felt Dr. Mayo would turn back these policies. Instead, they continue to live on as advanced by vote upon vote by the school board with seemingly little challenge to their validity.

Over the course of the last few years, there have been flashes of challenge to this flawed thinking however it has never been a majority opinion.

Running the district is more than just fiscal questions, it is about what the district will look like. Unfortunately, the district is reaping what it is has sown.

To piggyback on 2:21's comment, it is baffling that although the brief Zahorchak era is widely viewed as a disaster, very little has been done by the Board majority to reverse the policies he instituted.

@4:10, policy and academic strategy is configured by the superintendent and his/her administration. i communicate with a number of the board members, and feel that we're fortunate to have such caring people on the board. although there was/is tension between some members, i think it reflects on their passion for the school district.

Could it be that local politicians and citizens learn their behaviors (civility) from the federal level? A politician who disagrees with the president's policies, calls to question his very legitimacy (birth certificate, calls for impeachment). We are becoming a coarse society and I don't much care for it.

True statement- "Fewer and fewer citizens are likely to take part in such a system and that will start the long, slow, steady descent for our democracy."